While I don’t consider myself particularly wicked, I still get little rest. For example, on Friday night, I was relaxing with my family in sub-tropical Queensland when we were interrupted by a solar telemarketer who so blatantly breached industry standards I put the police onto him.
How Do You Stop Solar Telemarketers Calling?
Anyone who’s picked up the phone only to be caught out by a cold caller selling solar, batteries, or anything else may want to know how they can cut the odds of it ever happening again. Fortunately, there are a few fixes, with the main one being to get on the Do Not Call Register. If a telemarketer does something that isn’t just annoying but illegal, such as not ending the call when requested, you can lodge an official complaint. Also, if you’re savvy enough to know your rights and remember to ask for their Australian Business Number at the start of the call, they may be smart enough to behave themselves.
A Cold Call During A Hot Meal
We were having a family get-together and enjoying a succulent Chinese meal when we were interrupted by the ring of my mother’s mobile. My mum was busy collecting pieces of crunchy pork on her fork, so I answered the phone to save her the trouble, not realising what I was letting myself in for.
It was a telemarketer telling me I could qualify for up to $5,000 in government rebates for solar.
“Really?” I said. “Please tell me more. I want to hear all about it!”
After answering a few simple questions, it turned out I was eligible for the government rebates. Talk about lucky!
I would say this is the oldest trick in the book, except it was probably chiselled on stone tablets before books were invented. It’s a simple con: make a government incentive available to everyone appear exclusive to make it more desirable. In reality, the solar rebate is about as non-exclusive as it gets. “Do you have a pulse and a roof?” is a very low bar to clear.
The most interesting part of their spiel was saying the rebate was $5,000. The typical Australian can get over $33,000 in STCs if they’re willing and able to install a 100 kilowatt system, so $5,000 seems low. But I guess they found they land more fish with a reasonable-sounding rebate.
Now I knew their likely game, which would be getting people to sign up for solar and battery systems by pretending rebates available to everybody are some sort of special deal, I was tempted to give the salesperson an earful. But I held back. I was having a hard time understanding his accent, and I had no idea where he was calling from. Maybe he was just some poor guy in a developing country trying to make money for his family. A family that might only be able to dream of the sort of succulent Chinese meal I was currently missing out on. So, rather than blasting him with what I thought of his unethical sales tactics, I just said, “Bye!” and hung up.
This is very stylised, but basically what happened when I was called by “must-have-rebaters”.
Back For A Second Serving
But that was not the end of it. I hadn’t gotten far into a pile of Mongolian beef on egg-infested rice when they rang again. This time, I didn’t waste time and simply said, “Remove our number from your list and never call again.”
Rather than apologising and hanging up, the salesperson said, “But you’re not giving me a chance…”
That was the wrong thing to say. Those seven words put his company in breach of the Telecommunications (Telemarketing and Research Calls) Industry Standard 2017. I’m not a lawyer, but Section 13 of Part 2 on terminating a call says:
“(1) A caller must immediately terminate a call, or ensure that a call is immediately terminated, if:…
…(b) the call recipient asks for the call to be terminated or otherwise indicates that the call recipient does not want the call to continue.“
There’s nothing in there about never calling again, but it was worth a try.
Solar Telemarketers Can Face Big Fines
By not hanging up, he was potentially creating a major problem for his company, as the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) can punish breaches of the standard with everything from formal warnings to fines of millions of dollars. As an example, this year the TAB was fined $4 million for spam, and I don’t mean the spiced ham variety. A couple of solar telemarketers fined for breaches are:
The telemarketer said his company was “Solar Solutions” but it’s possible this wasn’t their real name and the cold callers were simply using something they thought sounded good.
I said, “You have to hang up. You’re required, by law, to immediately end a sales call when asked to do so.”
He replied, “But this isn’t a sales call.”
Somehow, I really doubted he was just some kindly soul, randomly ringing people up to make sure they knew about government rebates out of the goodness of his own heart. Annoyed by the obvious lie, I told him, ” You can either remove this number from your list and never call again, or you can talk to the police. I can put you through to the police right now. Would you like that?”
It turned out the sales guy was both annoying and cocky. He decided to call my bluff and said, “Yes, I would like that.”
I immediately handed the phone to my nephew, who was sharing our succulent Chinese meal while listening intently. He identified himself as a police sergeant in a tone of voice more menacing than Karl Urban playing Judge Dredd. I don’t exactly recall what he said after that, but it was along the lines of…
“Continuing a sales call after you’ve been requested to stop is a breach of the Telecommunications Act. If you continue, action will be taken against both you and your company.”
It turned out that was enough to convince him to hang up.
Oddly enough, no matter what prompt I use, whenever I ask for a picture of “my family” the AI always gives me this particular image.
How To Protect Yourself From Solar Telemarketers
It’s a sad fact that whenever a major new subsidy becomes available, such as the federal battery rebate, grubs crawl out of the woodwork and try to use it to take advantage of ordinary Australians. Two ways to protect yourself from unscrupulous telemarketers are:
- Put your phone on the Do Not Call Register.
- Complain to the ACMA if a telemarketer breaches the industry standard.
Do Not Call Register
I had put my mother’s landline on the Do Not Call Register years ago, but not her mobile phone. If you don’t want to receive sales calls while enjoying Chinese meals, succulent or otherwise, I highly recommend using it. You can register online here. This will stop sales calls from companies that obey the law, but not calls from registered charities and polling companies.
Make A Complaint
You can complain to the ACMA about telemarketers if they violate the standard in the four ways described on this page, which are:
- Not having line identification (caller ID) enabled.
- Calling outside permitted hours.
- Not giving their name and the purpose of the call at the start. The name can be just a first name.
- Not immediately ending the call when the recipient asks or otherwise indicates they don’t want to continue.
The ACMA’s online complaints form is mainly designed for people on the Do Not Call Register to complain about receiving sales calls, but if you persevere, it can be used to complain about telemarketers breaking the standard.
If you get a call that you think isn’t just a rotten telemarketer from a dodgy company, but a direct scam, such as someone fishing for your bank account details, I recommend contacting ScamWatch.
Get Their ABN!
One thing I forgot to do, but highly recommend, is to ask for their Australian Business Number (ABN) at the start of a call. If they refuse, you’ll know for sure they’re dodgy. If they do give it, then they’ll be more likely to behave themselves, as it will be obvious you’re not an easy mark. Sure, they could give you a fake number, but you can always look it up, and if it’s not real, you’ll know they’re crooks.
It’s OK To Complain
I’m hoping that telemarketer won’t be calling my mother again. But cold callers are only likely to stop breaching the Telecommunications Industry Standard if members of the public complain when it happens. And by members of the public, I mean people who aren’t me. This is not me being lazy. It’s because the ACMA isn’t interested in hearing complaints about solar telemarketers from people in the solar industry. They correctly consider it a conflict of interest.
I’m not saying you have to complain, but if a telemarketer calls you and they do breach the standards and leave you feeling annoyed enough to consider complaining, just do it – if not for me, then for my mother!
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About Ronald Brakels
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I’ll have to make sure I have a police officer in the house each time I’m sitting to enjoy a succulent meal 🙂
I’m retired now so I have the luxury of diverting all calls to voicemail except for those on my contact list. But I feel for people who are in business and *have* to take the call from an unknown person, just in case.
Oh, and the Do Not Call register is completely ignored by overseas telemarketers.
Fair dinkum, as you say, anything with potential subsidies or benefits that is hitting the news is a target for these grubs.
Reminds me of the funny fact iv only ever got one solar call and surprisingly it was the most pleasant cold call iv ever had.
It was rather clear he was only doing it because his boss made him.
When i said no he not only accepted it but didn’t try and push again and instead just ended up in a more general discussion on solar
I kept expecting him to shift back to trying to sell but he never did.
Honestly slightly weird iv never got any other calls about solar
“Had only just re-added the number to the do not call less than 24hrs before so wasn’t an illegal one”
Ronald good stuff. After doing most of what you suggest I have reverted to picking up the phone and just breathing heavily. Never had one last for more than 30 seconds it seems they value their time.